Democrats Lead the Charge on Earmark Reform

As Democrats continue to work to strengthen the economy and restore fiscal responsibility, Republicans are trying to forget their record. For years when Republicans controlled Congress and the White House, they did not implement earmark reforms – and in fact, the number of earmarks exploded. Just last year in January 2009, Republican Leader John Boehner and Whip Eric Cantor created the Republican Earmark Reform Committee and pledged to issue a detailed report on how Republicans would reform the earmark process. To date, after more than a year, no report has appeared. Unfortunately for Republicans, history shows that they’re all talk when it comes to reform and proves which Party leads the charge on earmark reform.

In January 2009, at the beginning of the 111th Congress, House Democrats continued their commitment to strong accountability and transparency by passing additional earmark reforms, including:

Requiring Members to publicly disclose all of their earmark requests (Beginning with FY10 bills).

Requiring even earlier public disclosure, by requiring all earmark disclosures be made public the same day that the subcommittee reports the bill (Beginning with FY10 bills).

Reducing earmarks by more than 43 percent below the FY06 level. For the FY10 bills, earmark funding levels will be reduced to 50 percent below the FY06 level.

In the 110th Congress, House Democrats passed strong earmark reform and reduced the dollar amount going to earmarks by more than 43% below the FY06 level. The new rules included:

Requiring Members to disclose their earmarks in bills.

Requiring Members to certify that they and their spouses have no personal financial interest in the request.

Prohibiting trading earmarks for votes

Requiring committees of jurisdiction and conference committees to publish lists of the earmarks contained in the reported bills, unreported bills, manager’s amendments, and conference reports brought to the House Floor; a Member may make a point of order against consideration of any rule that waives this requirement.

Republicans did not implement earmark reforms while they controlled the White House and Congress.

Under Republican leadership, the number of earmarks nearly quadrupled – from 4,000 in 1994 to over 15,000 at the end of the 109th Congress in 2005 – including massive increases to the following bills: